mocking the fact that there are defense cuts at a time of great peril. listen. >> the invasion of crimea, geneva to collapse, iran negotiation stalled, the south china sea, china more and more aggressive. north korea fired missiles in the last few days. syria is now turning into a regional conflict and the list goes on. >> now, john mccain went on to sarcastically say secretary hagel's timing is impeccable in the words of john mccain sarcastically suggesting this is not the time to be cutting the defense budget. >> interesting. what's the intrigue over germany's leader angela merkel emerging as a key player here? >> you'll remember in recent weeks the president clashed with angela merkel over nsa surveillance, reports that angle, a merkel's cell phone had been eavesdropped on, listened to by u.s. officials. there was a lot of patching up that needed to be done. yesterday there was a phone call of about an hour in which the president talked with angela merkel to work through what the white house is calling a diplomatic exit ramp here for vladimir putin to